Filter



March 4, 1941, L H, JEWELL 2,233,981

FILTER y :le

Mamh 4, 1941 I. H. JEwr-:LL I 2,233,981

FILTER Filed May 5, 1940 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Patented Mar. 4, 1941 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 8 Claims.

My invention is mainly concerned with large scale filtration, such as is employed for municipal lters, and is designed to produce a novel structure whereby the novel method of washing the sand or other similar filtering material, described in my application No. 121,676, filed January 21, 1937, may be carried out.

It is further concerned with the specific construction of the submerged screens which may be employed to increase its filtering capacity.

To illustrate my invention, I annex hereto two sheets of drawings in which the same reference characters are used to designate identical parts in all the gures, of which- Fig. 1 is a top plan View of a lter bed employing my invention;

Fig. 2 is a vertical section of the same on the line 2-2 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a section on an enlarged scale on the une 3 3 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 4 is an enlarged view in vertical section through one of the screen members, and showing an associated washing tube in elevation; and

Figs..5 and 6 are enlarged details in section on the lines 5 5 and 6 6, respectively, of Fig. 4.

Where my invention is employed in large ilter beds, such as are usually grouped together in municipal filters, I employ the customary chamber I0, which has onrits bottom the customary gravel bed II, on which the sand bed I2 is supported in the customary manner, and with the gravel bed having therein the customary supply of perforated tubes I3 connected by the Ts I4 to the common outlet pipe I5 in the bottom of the chamber I0, which pipe has connections I6 through the bottom of the chamber to the piping Il, which will be connected in any suitable manner, as for instance as is shown in my aforesaid application No. 121,676, with a clear water ume through which the filtered water is delivered as it is iiltered to a reservoir, and also with a source of wash water under any desired pressure, valve mechanism, of course, being employed so that water supplied to the top of the bed can be drawn off as filtered, or Wash water under pressure can be admitted to the bottom of the bed through the pipes I3 so that the wash Water rising uniformly throughout the bed will expand and elevate the upper portion of the sand so it can be washed as hereinafter explained.

The unltered water flume I8 has on the top of the partition I9 forming one side of it, a pair of U-shaped recesses into which fit one end o-f the U-shaped troughs 20, the other ends of which t into and are closed by the wall 2I, so that wate-r to be filtered rising in the flume I8 would enter the troughs 2'!) and overow onto the sand bed I2, through which it passes slowly in filtering, and is drawn off through the pipes I3, I5 and Il. 5 During the washing process, in which the movement of the Wash water is just opposite to that of the water being filtered,l the Wash water rises to the top of the troughs 20, spills over into them one and closing the other, or vice versa, it will 20" furnish either water to be filtered, or wash water under pressure. To Ts 25 therein, I connect pipes 26, which may be of a peculiar construction, in that the part 21 directly connected to the Ts 25 flares, as shown, and is connected to the main 25 body of the tube 2B, which, as seen in Fig. 3, is formed by the lower part of the trough body 28 to which is welded, or otherwise secured, the curved, preferably sheet metal, top portion extending the length of the trough and having a. closed end 30 formed by the wall 2l) to which it is secured, the resulting tube 2'6 being oblong in its effective cross section. In the bottom of the trough, I secure at intervals the short tubes 28 which in turn are secured by connections 29 to the central portion 3.5'

of the transverse tubes 30, the short tubes 28 preferably being of different lengths, so that all the transverse tubes 30, which are preferably arranged in parallel relation, will lie at the same shallow depth in the sand bed I2. These tubes 40 30 are closed at their ends and have the vertical tubes 3l screwed into them at preferably regular intervals. Near their upper ends, I form in said tubes 3i the slots 32, preferably arranged as shown in Fig. 5, with three slots in the same 40 plane, and preferably in three planes, but with angular locations different in the adjacent planes, las seen in Fig. 4. I preferably form in the tubes 30, preferably directly beneath the tubes 3I, the threaded apertures 33, which may be closed by 50 the plugs 34, as indicated in full lines in Fig. 2, or in one place in Fig. 4, or by the pipes 35 and the attached screens 36, as seen lin Figs. 3 and 4, and as hereinafter more fully explained, the screens 36 being employed when it is desired to 55 So far, the construction and mode of r,

increase the filtering capacity without enlarging the sand bed area, as explained at length in my aforesaid application No. 121,676.

If the screens 36 are not employed, the washing action will be as follows: Sufficient wash water is admitted through the pipes II, I5 and I3 to raise the water level and expand the sand until the top of the expanded sand reaches say to the lowermost slots in the pipes 3|, or substantially so. While theV sand is. so expanded and kept expanded by the rising wash water, the valves 23 and 24 are so manipulated as to furnish an additional supply of wash water under pressure to all the pipes 30, and so to the pipes 3|, from the slots 32 of which water is squirted in all directions with sufficient force to meet that coming from the slots of the surrounding tubes 3 I, so that as a result the loosened and expanding sand, almost floating, as it were, in the water, is scoured by attrition and all possible foreign matter loosened therefrom. What with the water from below and that added from the pipes 3I, the water rises rapidly enough to carry all foreign matter in suspension and spill it over into the troughs 20 whence it is carried off, in the manner in which wash water is usually disposed 0f,-

I" 112W@ dQSCI'bQd .the apertures. `33 as formed the pipes initially, and closed by the plugs 34., as in some. instances lters, as initially constructed, will have sufficient capacity from the sand bed without the screens 341, which can be subsequently readily added by removing the plugs 34 when the growth of the municipality makes the greater capacity secured by their use necessary.

In Figs. 4 to 6, I have shown specific improvements over the specific screen structures shown in the aforesaid application No. 121,676. I thread both ends of the tube 35, which will have the customary holes 37 therein, through which the wash water under pressure is driven in jets against the interior of the screen to clean it. I preferably form the imperforate top 38 of sheet metal, preferably in the form of a rather flat cone, and with its rim 39 turned down, it being held in place by the nut 40, as will be readily seen. An imperforate bottom piece 4I, having a threaded projection 42 on its vunder side, is SreWed onto the lower end of the tube 35, and a bottom disk 43, preferably formed of sheet metal and With an upturned rim 44, is held over it by thev nut 4,5. A ring 46, with its upper outer surface having the same angle as that of the top 38, and with its lower outer surface having the same, lang-le as that of the screen 36, which is preferably of the truncated conical shape shown, and is rolled into the shape shown with ythe edges joined, by the lock seam 41, serves to stiffen the rim of the top 38, and the top of the screen 36 is held between the ring 46 and the downturned rim 39, and preferably brazed or otherwise secured in place. The bottom of the screen 3.6 is similarly held between the periphery of the bottom pieceV 4I and the rim 44 of the bottom disk 43, which have the same angle to the vertical as the screen 3,6. The ring 46 and the bottom piece 4I will have recesses (not shown) in .their peripheries of the proper size and shape to accommodate the seam 41 of the screenf36.

In washing, as i-n filtering, the action of the screens 36,if they are employed, is the same as fully describedl in the aforesaid application No. 121,67@

Whilein filtering-to full capacity,y I manipulate the valves 23 and 24 so that a supply of water to be filtered ows through the tubes 26, 23 and to the tubes 35 and out through the screens 36, I may obtain much the same effect (unless the water thus passed through the tubes 26, 28 and 30 is under a greater head than that passing down through the surface of the sand) by closing both the valves 23 and 24, in which case some of the water standing above the sand bed Awill-by gravity enter the slots 32 and pass on down through the tubes 3| and 35,y and out through the screens 36, utilizing the filter possibilities of the sand surrounding the screens, in additionto that of the surface layer. The slots 3 I, being narrow to prevent sand passing through them, will limit the amount of the additional capacity secured in this way unless their total area equals that of the internal cross sections of the tube 35.

While I have shown and described my invention as embodied in. the form which I at present consider` best adapted toy carry out its purposes, it will be understood that it is. capable of modifications, and I do not desire to be limited in the interpretation of the following claims, except as may be necessitated by the4 prior1 art.

What I claim is new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is:

1. In a filter unit. theV combination with a lter chamber provided with inlet means, and eiiiuent means throughout the bottom thereof, of al bed of filtering material therein, piping extending throughout said chamber for carrying wash water thereto, and pipes closed at their free ends extending vertically from said piping throughout said bed at frequent intervals, said pipes having openings in the sides thereof located above the level of the bed when the water is being filtered therethrough, and serving when the bed is being washed by water rising therethrough from the eiuent means, to spray additional wash water horizontally upon the layer of the ltering material expanded by water rising from said eiiiuent means.

2. A filter unit as described in claim 1, in which the pipes, circular in cross section, have the openings formed by narrow horizontal slits.

3. A .filter unit as described in claim 1, in which the piping consists of parallel series of horizontal pipes embedded in the filtering material somewhat below the surface thereof with the. pipes opening into the upper sides thereof.

4.,As a new and useful lter unit, a generally U-shaped overflow trough having a partition toward the bottom thereof, forming a tube for carrying wash water, parlallel pipes closed at their ends extending 'transversely of the trough beneath it, connections between the tube and each of the pipes, and spray members extending upward from each of the pipes at intervals.

5. A filter unit as described in claim 4, in which the sprayV members consist of vertical tubes closed at the upper ends with their lower ones opening into the 4pipes and having openings in the sides thereof for the purpose described.

6. A filter unit as described in claim 1, in which filter screen members are provided opposite the pipes and opening in the under sides of the piping.

7. A filter screen member consisting of a perforated pipe having an imperforate disk with a downturned rim secured on its upper end, a bottom piece ysecured on its lower end and ciosgng it; a bottom. disk secured on. the bottom Piecebaving1-fan upturned' rim, with a ring ntting into the downturned rim of the top disk, and a generally cylindrical screen having its upper edge held between the ring and the downturned rim of the disk and its lower end held between the bottom piece and the upturned rim of the bottom disk.

8. A iter screen member consisting of a perforated pipe threaded at its top and bottom and having an abutment thereon near said top, an imperforate disk with a downturned rim and central aperture tting over the top of the pipe and resting on the abutment, a connection threaded onto the top of the pipe and serving to clamp the disk between it and the abutment, a ring fitting into the turned-down rim of the disk, a bottom piece threaded onto the lower end of the pipe and having a threaded extension, a bottom disk with 1a turned-up rim and fitting ovecz1 the bottom piece and held in place by a nut screwed onto the extension, and a gen,- erally cylindrical screen having its upper edge heid between the ring and the downturned rim of the disk, and its lower rim held between the l0 bottom piece and the upturned rim of the bottom disk.

IRA I-I. JEWELL. 

